EVALUATION OF PRESCRIBING INDICATORS AND PRESCRIPTION WRITING AT THE OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENT OF A PEDIATRIC TEACHING HOSPITAL IN LIBYA

Background:Irrational drug prescribing and inappropriate prescription writing have a serious medical and economicimpacton patients and society. Information on pediatric prescribing and quality of prescription writing in Libya are lacking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent of rational prescribing using the WHO indicatorsand to assessthe completeness of prescriptions recorded informationat the outpatient department of Benghazi Childrens Hospital.

Results:A total of 603 prescriptions were sampled and analyzed. Concerning the prescribing indicators, the average number of medicines per encounter was 1.52, 5.47% of drugs were prescribed by generic name, 20.56% of encounters had at least one antibiotic prescribed, 25.87% of encounters were prescribed one injection or more and 61.27% of the prescribed drugs were from the Essential Drugs List. As regards the completeness of the recorded data on prescriptions, the patients name, gender, age and diagnosis were recorded in 99.34%, 10.78%, 85.74% and 29.85% of prescriptions, respectively. None of the prescriptions included the patients contact details and only 0.66% mentioned the patients weight. Prescribers information such as the name, signature and contact details were present in more than half of prescriptions while only 3.98% were stamped.Medication details like the dosage form, dose and frequency were written for more than 82% of the prescribed drugs whereas the strength and treatment duration were the least recorded drug information, 46.28% and 56.67%, respectively.

Conclusion:Some forms of irrational drug prescribing as well as suboptimal recording of prescriptions information were observed at the outpatient department of Benghazi Childrens Hospital.